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Mary Zurko interviewed by Denis Mercier --7-- 8/21/72 Tape 12-1

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them and everything. But then it got so much for me that I couldn't do it,
because I had my mother over here, then I had my own home, and it was just
too much for me, I couldn't do it. So then he broke up the house then, and
then after he broke it up, then--they wanted my mother and I to move up in
there. Father Hopkins, he was the pastor over at St. Ann's. My mother
wouldn't move up. She said, you's'll all go out at night and leave me in
alone. She was afraid up there--so, then after they moved out, why, our
Jimmy took up there. So he is there yet. He's been there a long time.

DM: I was going to say, he's been there for, what, that was about, what, 1939 or
40? Or later than that.

MZ: My mother, was my mother livin' then? Oh, yes, she was. Mom died in '55.
Yeah, I guess it was in about the forties, maybe, in the forties. I don't
remember.

DM: Well, okay. But I just wondered, yeah, how long he had been there.

MZ: Yeah. So, Jimmy is there yet. And I guess he'll be there until--he was
told he was only gonna be there until '75. I don't know whether there are
any facts to that or not.

DM: He was told he could only stay there until '75? I know nothing about that.

MZ: But John, see John, but John didn't care. John said, 'Til 75? He said he
could be froze to death! So John put the, he put the heat in. He got this
furnace I think from some fellow that was gettin' rid of it. They are all
gettin' oil in, you know, now. And he got this--he's a very handy boy, he
is an electrician and can do anything, you know--so, he got this furnace
from somebody, and he installed it in the house. But, he says, 'til 75,
there's a lot of things that could happen. Oh, McCarthy had told him that,
That's the fellow's name. I was trying to figure his name out, and honest
to God--Tom McCarthy. And he said '75. But, he said, there could be a lot
of things that could happen.

DM: And there will be. There will be.

MZ: I know. And he didn't just come right out and say that they were gonna have
to get out. It could be--and John said this furnace that he got, that they
can convert it to oil, you see, which he intends to do, I guess.

DM: I know that that house has a lot of history. A lot of interesting things.
A lot of interesting people have lived there. Do you remember, well, you
went to that church, didn't you?

MZ: Oh, yes.

DM: Do you remember if there were any kinds of distinction about where you sat?
I know a lot of churches, even Catholic churches...

MZ: Oh, no, uh-uh. You always knew the seat...

DM: Did you have your own pew, in other words?

MZ: Well, you had your, you know, you didn't have your own pew, but you always
sat where you, you know, first started. But on Sundays, when you got up
there, maybe you got up a little late, somebody else had it, you had to
stick yourself in some other seat, you know. No, no, we didn't have that.
That was no distinction here.

DM: But, I mean, there were no, like, the "higher-ups" in the town didn't sit
up front, and the lower people sit in the back, or, none of that stuff?

MZ: Well, some people made a habit of sitting up front, you know. Some people
made a habit of sitting in the center aisle. Some people made a habit of
sitting in the back, which happens right now.

DM: Oh, yeah, that's what I mean. I jsut wondered if that was the same...

MZ: When I go to church, I go to church at St. Ann's, with Jimmy. I go to
St. Ann [blank space] with Jimmy. Well, his brother and his wife, and, they all
sit in the back! Which, I never sat in the back, you know? But I have to